Airfix Club set - Under the Red Star

[Troy Smith]

While perusing a thread at Britmodeller on what new for Airfix in 2013 [as long as the Mayans got it wrong] they are doing this as their Airfix Club release..



don't like the yellow spinner on the Spitfire much... and the only Hurricane IIB they did is the early's one with the battleship rivets, though their old Spitfire VB kit is well shped and I presume the P-40 is the new one.

Maybe they can be persuaded to finally change the paint instructions for their Yak-9.... or give John a treat and tool up a new one...

cheers
T

[John Thompson]

Thanks for the kind words about the Yak-9, Troy! I'd have liked the "Under the Red Star" set better if it was new-tool replacements for the current Airfix kits of the Yak-9, Il-2, and Pe-2, but I guess lend-lease types with red stars are better than nothing - at least it's an acknowledgement from Airfix that the VVS even exists! FWIW, I remember building the current Yak-9 when I was a kid, about 50 years ago - at the time, it looked quite spiffy in its bogus camouflage. Kind of sad, though, that Airfix haven't bothered to correct that after all these decades! 

John

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi John and Troy,
the problems of that Yak-9 are so bad that changing the camo, decals or boxing would be a loss of resources only. I hope that they will make it new as they did for many old models, but I fear that they give no priority to this one.
Regards
Massimo

[learstang]

It is nice to see a major manufacturer provide some VVS aeroplanes, even if they are Lend-Lease (nothing wrong with Lend-Lease VVS aircraft though; I have several I'm working on, including the "White 58" P-40 shown on this box art).  I haven't seen their Pe-2, but if it's anything like their "Il-2", it definitely needs a new moulding.  I didn't realise they had a new mould kit of an early P-40.  At any rate, thanks for posting, Troy!  I missed this one on Britmodeller.

Regards,

Jason

[Troy Smith]

Hello all.

Jason, you'd probably have missed this as it was in 'what will Airfix give us thread' and it was only because I had a look at the Airfix site I noticed this.
I don't think I made it clear, the "Airfix Club" is a subscription,
see http://www.airfix.com/official-airfix-club-membership/

So, not generally available, but thought worth mentioning here. 

Yes, there is a new tool Airfix P-40B, threads on Britmodeller and elsewhere.  72nd is not my area of interest but I have not heard howls of anguish over it. 
If I'm right about the Spitfire and Hurricane versions the Spitfire is OK, the Hurricane needs a lot of work, not only the rivets, but the canopy and spine are too shallow.
Still, neat box art I thought.

As for the old VVS kits, that's a nostalgia trip, IIRC I got a load of kits in 1975, age 9, the details are hazy, I got some cash and harangued my old man into getting about 8 kits in a go.
I'm pretty sure I got the Il-2, Pe-2 and Yak-9 in that batch, they were were wonderfully exotic, [I always fancied the Il-28 but I never saw it for sale, or not when I had funds!]
(by 'Haranged' I meant he wasn't happy as he didn't much like plastic kits, 'too plastic'  plus he didn't like warlike toys, he become rather PC by then... And, boy did that ever not work! I'm here posting about those Airfix kits 37 years later...  I digress. )


Hmm,  well, being a pack rat I actually still have the above 3!

 I know the Il-2 is junk, I don't know about the Yak-9, at some point it got dissembled, memory tells me it looks like a Yak,

the problems of that Yak-9 are so bad that changing the camo, decals or boxing would be a loss of resources only.

I'd say it would be worthwhile, even just so modellers are shown it wasn't in bloody RAF style green and brown!!

As for the Pe-2, I recently bought one, as I'd quite like to build that experimental scheme discussed here at length,and some practice[I have  4 1/48th ones stashed]  and the kit looks surprisingly decent shapewise, the fuselage is an oval, I read that it should be circular, but it's hard to tell from photos.
I did google it, but didn't get a good answer

Don't know, further research would be needed, but this is the original boxing,  even has a price sticker saying 3/6 [ie pre decimal 3 shilling and 6 pence - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C2%A3sd]  which dates it pre 1971.

[learstang]

Troy, I of course have the Il-2 kit.  It has, how to say this delicately, certain problems.  I still have an old Yak-9 built up by my older brother some 40 years ago or so, and I have to say it at least resembles a Yak-9 more than the Airfix Il-2 resembles an actual Il-2 (the Il-2 looks like it were done by someone working from eyewitness accounts, something like a police artist trying to reconstruct the appearance of a suspect; it was certainly not done by anyone who'd ever seen a photograph of the b****y thing!).  The Pe-2 I've never seen, having instead the rather nice, if simple, Italeri/Zvezda offering.  The Spitfire, if it's their old Mk.VB, is a decent kit - not up to current standards, of course, but it's not covered by scale 3" rivets, and it appears to be accurate shapewise.  They even did a fair job representing the "gull wing" on the undersides.  I may have their old Hurricane built up, but I did such a horrible job on it I'm afraid to look at it anymore - "One does not stare into the face of the Medusa!".  Are you sure that one kit was in shillings and not guineas?

Regards,

Jason

[B_Realistic]

It is nice to see a major manufacturer provide some VVS aeroplanes, even if they are Lend-Lease (nothing wrong with Lend-Lease VVS aircraft though; I have several I'm working on, including the "White 58" P-40 shown on this box art).  I haven't seen their Pe-2, but if it's anything like their "Il-2", it definitely needs a new moulding.  I didn't realise they had a new mould kit of an early P-40.  At any rate, thanks for posting, Troy!  I missed this one on Britmodeller.

Regards,

Jason

Jason,

I love to see that P-40 you've been working on.
Look at the weathering.
Nice.

Michel